Food Scandals
Print Edition
This summer, a simple meal of rice topped with shelled crawfish was all the rage. It originated in Nanjing but was quickly picked up in Shanghai, where some restaurants started to offer the dish at prices as low as 36 yuan (US$5.7).
The cheap price should have been a warning signal about the quality of the food.
On August 16, the Zheng Wenqi Crawfish Rice Restaurant in Yangpu District was closed four days after it opened and seven customers came down with food poisoning. It turned out the restaurant was selling the crawfish meals at a price below the labor cost of shelling the crustaceans. Zheng Wenqi’s other chain outlets suffered a dramatic drop in business.
Many people have delivery service apps on their phones, like ele.me and meituan.com. The apps are very easy to use and provide a diverse selection of restaurants for users to choose from. With less than an hour’s wait, a customer can have a meal delivered.
However, the Internet doesn’t give customers a transparent view of the kitchens preparing the food. Some turned out to be unlicensed and operating in less-than-sanitary environments.
In October, China Central Television conducted an investigation in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province, and discovered that many participating restaurants of popular delivery apps are actually dirty kitchens without any quality control checks.
Similar scandals came to light in Hangzhou. Ele.me finally announced it had removed 30 percent of businesses from its app in Hangzhou alone.
Family kitchens operating through WeChat to sell bakery goods, snacks and other food items also pose similar problems of food safety standards and licensing. Although the cakes online look beautiful and taste-tempting, many family kitchens cannot guarantee basic sanitary requirements.
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